NOWELTIES - Joint PhD Laboratory for New Materials and Inventive Water Treatment Technologies. Harnessing resources effectively through innovation is a Marie Sklodowska Curie Action European Joint Doctorate (EJD) project (programme Innovative Training Networks (ITN) of Horizon 2020). Its primary objective is to organize a platform that will provide cutting edge training opportunities for the education of tomorrow`s water treatment experts. The core activity is the research programme (composed of 14 individual research projects) aimed at development of inventive water treatment technologies (advanced biological treatments, innovative oxidation processes, hybrid systems) that allow catering for the varied treatment demands for a plethora of interconnected streams arising from recycling loops. These technologies will be able to control contamination by organic micropollutants (OMPs) and improve recovery of water across a diversity of scales enabling a smart combination of decentralized and centralised approaches. Besides a holistic training in the field of wastewater treatment dealing with state-of-the-art technologies, experimental techniques and knowledge management methodologies, NOWELTIES will provide a unique training approach to learning complex complementary skills leading to independent and critical thinking which seeks for originality and innovation.

Therefore, we are looking for 14 post-graduate researchers (Early Stage Researchers - ESR), specialized in Chemistry, Chemical, Environmental, Hydrogeological or Materials Engineering, Biotechnology, Physics or similar. Candidates should have a strong interest in (waste)water treatment and interdisciplinary research including bioprocesses for wastewater treatment, nanotechnology, and fate of organic and inorganic contaminants in engineered treatment systems.

The position is offered for 3 years for the following individual research projects:

ESR Title of PhD thesis Host institution

Understanding biotransformation mechanisms of OMPs during anoxic biological wastewater treatment, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Studying the bioavailability and biodegradability of OMPs during treatment, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

Coupling the new concept of sequential biofiltration with in situ electron acceptor delivery for enhanced OMP removal and effective attenuation of disinfection by-product precursors, Technical University of Munich, Germany

Design, development and characterization of atmospheric plasma system for wastewater treatment, Institute of Physics, Belgrade, Serbia

Understanding transformation of OMPs during plasma treatment and its ecotoxicological implications, Catalan Institute for Water Research, Girona, Spain

Application of UV LEDs AOPs for the efficient removal of OMPs from waste water, Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Zagreb, Croatia

All hired researchers will compulsory enrol in Doctoral Programmes at two Universities (host institution and mobility host) and undertake mobility in order to implement the Individual Research Project, as well as to participate in a sustained training programme that will lead to awarding double doctoral degree.